CHAPTER IV.QUACKERY.

The reader is now prepared, by the facts and considerations presented in the previous chapters, to see in what way quackery, in its various forms, has obtained such a hold upon the community. If results in medical treatment could always be traced to their real cause, there would be no room for the arts of the empiric. But the reader has seen that, in the progress of every case of disease, there are many causes acting together in the development of results, and that many of these act secretly; and that there is, therefore, special need of caution in our conclusions, in regard to the operation of remedies. And yet, notwithstanding the manifest necessity for caution, there is no subject to which the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ mode of reasoning is so frequently, and so incautiously applied. It is the erroneous reference of effects to causes, consequent upon this mode of reasoning, which is the great source of quackery.[7]

Let us see how this result is produced.

Take any remedy, no matter what it is, whether it be positive in its character, or entirely inert, and it can be made to acquire an extensive reputation for curing disease. Suppose that it is of a positive character. Let quite a large number of persons in a community be persuaded to take it. It would be appropriate to a few out of the whole number of cases, just as a man firing into a crowd of men at random would be apt to hit some of them. Then there are some, who, through the recovering power of nature, get well while using the medicine, perhaps even in spite of it, and falsely attribute the cure to it. Themanythat are not benefitted soon, give up the use of the remedy, and the fact that they have taken it is known to but few, and is soon forgotten even by them. But the few thatchanceto derive benefit from it, or that are cured by nature while taking it, proclaim everywhere the virtues of the remedy with the ardent gratitude of restored health, and willingly give certificates of their cure for the benefit of suffering humanity. All this helps to get the new remedy in vogue in other places; and wherever it is introduced, the same result, for the most part, is realized. The consequence is, that the remedy comes into extensive use, and continues in the popular favor, till some other remedy, by the same process, supplants it.

Even if the remedy be not of a positive character, but wholly inert, enough of the whole number that take it will get better, from the curative power of nature, and from mental influence, to give it, for a time, the reputation of curing disease. Many examples might be given. An amusing instance of the celebrity sometimes gained by inert remedies, occurred in Paris. A man who had sold to great profit an eye-water, at length died without communicating to any one the composition of it. His widow regretted the loss of the profits which came from the sale of the eye-water. Without telling her trouble to any one, she filled up the phials from the River Seine, and went on to sell the eye-water as usual. Cures occurred as before, and everybody believed that her husband had bequeathed the recipe to her. On her death-bed her conscience was much disturbed on account of the deception which she had thus practised upon the community, and she made confession to the physician who attended upon her. He, however, quieted her mind by telling her, that he was sure she need give herself no uneasiness, for her medicine had at least done no harm—a consolation which most venders of secret medicines could not have.

The variety of both active and inert remedies, which have enjoyed, in the way that I have indicated, a temporary popularity, is very great. Even calomel, which now seems to be especially despised by all empirics and their followers, has had its hey-day of popular favor. It was one of the chief remedies of Paracelsus, who has been styled the prince of quacks. And some years ago an empiric, in the staid city of Boston, acquired a great reputation for wonderful cures, by giving calomel in very large doses, even by the teaspoonful. His reputation was, of course, short-lived; for, though he seemed to make somecapital hits, so glaring an abuse of a good remedy could not but be attended with bad results, occasionally of so palpable a character, as to undeceive even the credulous public.

The most prominent quack medicines are principally ofthreekinds.

1. Evacuants. To this class belong the almost numberless varieties of pills advertised in the newspapers. There is a great similarity in the composition of these pills, although each kind is ushered into notice with all the pretensions of an entirely new discovery. Aloes, gamboge, &c., medicines in common use, form the basis of nearly all of them. They are simply good cathartic preparations, and have none of the extraordinary virtues attributed to them. And, as those who are ailing are commonly benefitted by producing some amount of cathartic effect, these different pills actually do some good to quite a large proportion of the cases to which they are applied. The difficulty with them is, that used indiscriminately, as they so generally are, they in many cases do injury, and in some to a fatal extent.

2. The second class of quack medicines are those which are supposed to act upon the system slowly, producing a change in its general condition. The general termalterativemay be properly applied to them.

The various preparations of sarsaparilla belong to this class. The same remark can be made in regard to these that was made in relation to the great variety of popular pills. They are all very much alike, although the proprietor of each claims for his preparation that it is entirely new in its combination, and that it is pre-eminently successful. A single fact, which came to the knowledge of the author, will show what kind of imposition some ofthese discoverers ofnewpreparations of sarsaparilla practice upon the community. Twenty years ago, Carpenter’s Fluid Extract of Sarsaparilla had a high reputation, both with the profession and with the public. No secret was made of its composition. A student of medicine copied the formula. A few years ago he furnished an apothecary with this formula, who forthwith came out before the public with what purported to be anewpreparation of sarsaparilla, which, by the usual machinery of quackery, obtained extensive popular favor, and made a fortune for the apothecary. His preparation was not a new one, but was made according to Carpenter’s formula, with some slight additions to alter the taste and the appearance of the medicine. The sale of this once famous preparation of sarsaparilla has, with that of its rivals, almost, if not wholly gone by; and others are now the candidates for fame andmoneywith their entirelynewpreparations.

3. As consumption is the most common of all chronic diseases, there is a very large class of remedies which are supposed to act especially upon the lungs. Each one of these is claimed by its proprietor to be acertain curefor this formidable disease. They are generally combinations of articles which are in common use among physicians in affections of the lungs. In the indiscriminate use to which they are put by the empiric, while they benefit some cases to which theyhappento be appropriate, in the great majority of instances they undoubtedly do harm; and in the forming stage of many cases, they fasten the disease irrecoverably, when a judicious and discriminating treatment might have saved the patient. These nostrums, therefore, add much to the mortality of consumption in the community.

It is well understood by any one who proclaims the discoveryof a new medicine for any disease, that his day of prosperity must necessarily be short. He knows that his medicine, whatever amount of popular favor it may acquire, will soon be supplanted by some othernewly-discovered preparation. He must, therefore, make the most of his time. Accordingly, as soon as he succeeds in getting his name up by certificates, advertisements, &c., he throws as large quantities as possible of his medicine into market, and has but little care for the quality of the materials of which it is made. Great quantities of sarsaparilla and other articles which have been damaged, or have become inert by age, are constantly used up in this way, furnishing a profitable outlet for the refuse, which accumulates annually in the shops of the dealers in such articles. Large amounts, too, of adulterated articles are used in the manufacture of quack remedies.

Another imposition of a kindred character deserves a passing notice. When any particular article is high in favor with the public, every empiric incorporates it into thenamewhich he gives to his medicine, in order to ensure its popularity, though there may be little, perhaps none, of the article used in its composition. If the article command a high price, or if there be any difficulty in obtaining it in sufficient quantity, other substances can supply its place—thenameis all that is essential to secure a profitable sale of the medicine. Much of the sarsaparilla which is sold, has little or none of the real Spanish sarsaparilla in it; and as the Canchalagua of California is now rising into notice, there will, undoubtedly, be much sold as the genuine article, which will be composed of substances that Californians never saw.

The fact that the quack’s advertisement is not only ridiculously pompous and grandiloquent, but palpably false,does not seem to injure the sale of his medicine, even with quite sensible people. A medical student in Boston amused himself with writing a burlesque quack advertisement. An apothecary, to whom he read it, proposed to buy it of him, and said that he would prepare a medicine, which, he had no doubt, could be sold in large quantities by the aid of that advertisement. The young man was astonished that his friend should suppose that any such use could be made of what he intended should be so exceedingly ridiculous. But the bargain was struck, the advertisement was put forth, and the medicine was, for a time, among the prominent quack remedies. Ridiculous as was this burlesque advertisement, it has since been surpassed by many of those which occupy so large a space in the newspapers.

The certificates of cures, which are so important in giving currency to quack medicines, may be divided intofourclasses.

1. Some of these certificates are forgeries.

2. Many of them are essentially, sometimes wholly, untrue. Some of this class are written by the local agents of the proprietor; and the individuals are persuaded to sign them, because the medicine had been gratuitously furnished, or for some other reason. I know many facts which I could adduce in proof of this statement. I will mention, however, but one case. One who had been an apothecary, and had sold large amounts of quack medicines, stated, that in one year he sold three thousand dollars’ worth of one medicine—that he had no satisfactory proof of its having cured a single case of disease—that he had obtained, however, many certificates of cure, but not one from any person who had paid for the medicine.

3. Another class of certificates are obtained in this way.Invalids are very apt, on taking a new medicine, to imagine themselves for a little time to be benefitted; but after a while they find that it is mere imagination. Many certificates are obtained of such persons at the time when they feel encouraged in regard to their prospect of recovery. The empiric understands that this is the golden opportunity for him, and he will have no delay if it can be avoided. It is astonishing what sensible people are sometimes caught in this way. A deaf gentleman once asked me my opinion of an empiric, who pretended to have uncommon skill in the cure of deafness. He found, among the published certificates, a letter from a gentleman of his acquaintance, of the highest standing both in character and intellect, expressing great gratitude for the relief which he had experienced from the practice of this ear doctor. He wrote to his friend a letter of inquiry. His friend replied, that when he returned from his visit to this quack, he thought himself to be somewhat better, and was so much delighted that he magnified the improvement in his imagination, and in this condition wrote that certificate; and that he was now satisfied that he unwittingly made in that certificate a really false representation of his case.

4. Another class of certificates come from those who are really relieved while using the medicines, in regard to which they certify. The inference, according to the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ mode of reasoning is, that the medicines, of course, cured them. I need not stop to show that this inference can by no means always be a correct one. I trust that the facts presented in the previous chapters are sufficient to satisfy the reader on this point.

No class of men have done more harm by giving certificates of cures by quack medicines, than clergymen. They are so situated in the discharge of their parochialduties, that they are apt to be drawn into the signing of such certificates. They hear the glowing statements recited by patients and their friends. They, of course, sympathize with the relieved sufferers. They do not sift and examine the statements, for it seems almost unfeeling to doubt. They often, therefore, give these statements full credence, and furnish the empiric with certificates. Certificates from such sources are highly prized, and are, therefore, eagerly sought for. But clergymen should consider what they are doing by this course. The facts which I have stated show, that by such acts they uphold a system of impositions, and help quackery to destroy the lives of their fellow men.

The feeling which physicians manifest in regard to empiricism, is very commonly supposed to be prompted by self-interest. This is far from being true. It would not be at all for the pecuniary interest of physicians to have quackery suppressed; for it is continually furnishing them with patients, in whom disease has been created or aggravated by the use of empirical remedies.

I trust that it is obvious to the reader, from the facts which I have stated, that the medical profession are right in the ground which they have for the most part maintained against secret and patent medicines. The rule which they have adopted, in regard to themselves, on this point, is thus given in Percival’s Medical Ethics: “No physician or surgeon should dispense a secret nostrum, whether it be his invention or exclusive property; for if it be of real efficacy, the concealment of it is inconsistent with beneficence and professional liberality. And if mystery alone give it value and importance, such craft implies either disgraceful ignorance or fraudulent avarice.”[8]

This rule recognizes a very just distinction between inventions in medicine and all other inventions. As medicine has to do with such important interests as health and life, the principles of benevolence demand, that any invention or discovery in this art, should be promulgated without any hindrance. And this is the more necessary, because nearly all of the so-callednewmedicines, put forth from time to time, have nothing new in them, and mystery alone gives them their value and importance in the eyes of the public. The claims which are set up for the great mass of popular remedies, blazoned forth in newspaper, pamphlet, almanac, and handbill so profusely, are gross impositions; and an exposure of the formulas, according to which these medicines are compounded, would show them to be so.[9]

The only way in which this imposition, so constantly practised upon the community, can be guarded against effectually, is to oblige every one who sells a medicine, to make the composition of it known on the wrapper in which each parcel of the medicine is enclosed. Such a law is now, I understand, in force in the State of Maine. I hope that the law will be sustained, and that so just and noble an example will everywhere be followed.

If it be objected that the inventor in medicine should, like other inventors, have something more as a reward than the consciousness of doing good, and the reputation which his invention gives him, this can be provided for without any difficulty. Let a board be constituted, whose duty it shall be to examine all medicines offered to them, rejecting all that have nothing new in material or in the form of combination, and recommending all that are really valuable. Let it also be the duty of this board to award to the proprietor of every medicine, which they approve, as being a real invention or discovery, a suitable sum to be paid him out of the public treasury. Such a board, constituted on the most liberal principles that any one could desire, would find but few among the multitude of remedies now before the public, of which they could conscientiously approve; and there would be no ground for fear of any great drain upon the public treasury, by the awards which they would make to inventors.

Quackery has, at length, come to be so monstrous an evil, that there will be great difficulty in removing it. Thecredulity of the public is so great and so extensive, that the plainest and strongest facts, brought out even in multitudinous array, are almost powerless before it. Then, too, the capital invested in this vast system of imposture is large in amount. It has become one of the great interests in the community,[10]and is so linked in with other interests in the relations of business, as to have a strong hold in this way upon the public. It has even subsidized the press; and it has done it so thoroughly, that it has not only muzzled it, so far as speaking out the truth on this subject is concerned, but it has compelled it to utter freely the falsehoods which it demands for its purposes. I speak of our secular newspapers. If there are any that are not guilty, they are exceptions. There may be a few. I know of not one. Not content with advertising quack medicines, they, for a liberal fee, admit into their columns, articles which have the appearance of editorial recommendations; and these are copied as such into advertisements in other newspapers. And besides all this, respectable editors have often refused to publish any exposure of the impositions of quackery. Our legislators, too, are afraid to move in any way against a system of impostures which has so strong a hold upon the community. Still,though these formidable obstacles are in the way of a radical reform on this subject, let the facts continue to be brought out, and let the truth be told fearlessly; and this evil, grown now to be so monstrous, will at length yield to our efforts.

I have thus far spoken of only one form of quackery—the sale of secret medicines. It appears in various other forms. I shall give some examples of only a few of them.

Many empirics have become itinerant lecturers. They, of course, always have something to sell—books, medicines, braces, breathing-tubes, &c. Their lectures are partly, sometimes wholly, gratuitous, which, certainly, looks like being somewhat benevolent. The lectures are made up of some very plain truths, borrowed from some medical works, which, mingled with some popular errors, and spiced with the prevailing ultraism of the present day, in order to make them interesting, are urged upon the audience as being both new and important. A variety of illustrations and analogies, some of which are true and some merely plausible, are made use of to effect the lecturer’s purpose; which is, to convince the audience that he has examined the subject particularly, and is a thorough master of it. If he succeed in doing this, there is a great rush of invalids to his rooms in the intervals of his lectures. His remedies are costly, but his advice is gratuitous; and this is commonly a very successful bait for the poor invalid. He receives a large amount of money from his numerous patients for what cost him but very little. For the time being, he is the great medical lion of the place. But great as he is, when he is once gone, he is gone never to return to that place again: his vocationthereis ended.

Some of these empirical lecturers have, as a special attraction,one or two lectures particularly for the ladies, to which no gentleman can be admitted; and one or two also for gentlemen, from which the ladies are excluded. I will only say, that in every case in which I have known this to be done, the character of the lectures has been such as no virtuous community should tolerate.

Animal magnetism, as applied to medicine, has made quite a figure in the world of quackery. Miss Martineau, and many other people reputed to be very sensible, have been entrapped by this delusion. The magnetized subject, or clairvoyant, who attends the lecturer on this “science,” in his travels, is said to be able to look into the sick, and see exactly what is going on there. If this be so, animal magnetism must be capable of rendering essential aid in investigating disease—more essential, indeed, than any other means which we have at our command; and every physician should have his clairvoyant to attend him in his daily visits. The hits which are sometimes made by clairvoyants, are said to be astonishing; but they are so for precisely the same reason that the hits of the fortuneteller are sometimes truly wonderful. The clairvoyant has ears, and can hear what may be said aloud or in whisper about different invalids; and the magnetizer can hear for her.

I will give an example or two, to show what convenient use can be made of ears by these clairvoyants.

I once heard a lecturer state the case of a young man, who, he said, had for a long time suffered severe pain, and had applied to many physicians without obtaining any relief, or any satisfactory explanation of his case. His clairvoyant at once directed that a particular tooth be removed, and said that an abscess could then be opened above it, the discharge of which would relieve the pain. This wasdone, and the patient was relieved. Every one supposed, from his manner of relating the case, that no one had ever hinted at the real seat of the disease, and that it was a fresh discovery of his clairvoyant. It was found, however, that physicians had taken this view of the case, and that it had been talked about in the family. The clairvoyant, probably, got her knowledge by her ears, before she was put into the ‘magnetic state.’

A very shrewd lady accompanied a friend on a visit to a clairvoyant, in Boston, whom she wished to consult in regard to her child, who had, by a fall, injured his side. She watched the proceedings of the parties very narrowly. The clairvoyant was for some time quite in the dark about the case, and used very indefinite language in regard to it. At length her mind became suddenly clear in its views; and itseemedto be done by a whisper uttered by one of the party to another, in relation to the fall. She at once said, “The child must have had some accident—he fell down, and as he stretched out his hands, he struck on his chest,and the bones have shot by each other.” The clairvoyant went a little too far. There is no such thing as the shooting by of any bones in the chest, at least in any ordinary accident. These clairvoyants, that see right into people, often have an anatomy of their own.

We sometimes have an opportunity of testing the clearness of the medical vision of these clairvoyants. One of them, a few years since, on examining the case of a child, saw in its intestines three kinds of worms, which she described with great exactness. It was a very clear and distinct vision. The child died two days after, and I assisted in its examination after death. The worms, so distinctly seen, were not to be found. The magnetizer and his clairvoyant immediately left for another field of labor.

Some names have become quite celebrated in the annals of quackery. I will give a passing notice to a few of them.

Paracelsus has been called the prince of quacks. He flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century. In order to give himself dignity, he assumed the names of Philippus, Aureolus, Theophrastes, Paracelsus, Bombastes de Hohenheim. He discarded all the commonly-received doctrines and modes of practice, and pretended to have been searching after the truth for many years. He put forth a pompous proclamation of his travels and researches, and pretended to have made great acquisitions in medical science. The remedies which he used were mostly of theheroickind; and though he killed many by his rash practice, he stumbled on some great cures, (and what quack has not?). These were proclaimed in the most bombastic manner. The result was that his practice was immense in amount and extent. The magistrates of Basle engaged him, at a large salary, to fill the chair of medicine in their university. At his first lecture he burned the works of Galen and Avicenna, and asserted that there was more knowledge in hiscapthan in the heads of all physicians, and that there was more experience in hisbeardthan in all the universities. “Greeks, Romans, French and Italians,” said he, “you Avicenna, you Galen, you Rhazes, you Mesne—you doctors of Paris, you of Montpelier, you of Swabia, you of Prussia, you of Cologne, you of Vienna—and all you throughout the countries that are washed by the Danube and the Rhine, and you who inhabit the islands of the sea, Athenian, Greek, Arab, and Jew: you shall follow and obey me: I am your king—the monarchy of physic is mine!”

Though he did not long retain his professorship, andthough he was grossly intemperate in the last years of his life, he maintained his reputation for extraordinary cures even to his death. Great and learned men were among his patients, and even the noted Erasmus consulted this arrant charlatan.[11]

It is but a few years ago that St. John Long had immense multitudes of patients in London, though his notions were of the most ridiculous character, and were attacked with the shafts of reason and ridicule on every side. His theory was, that all diseases were produced by a semi-mercurial fluid, and that in order to cure the disease, the seat of this fluid must be found, and the fluid must in some way be got out. He had discovered a very summary way of doing this. He used a liniment, which he applied over the seat of the fluid, and extracted it at once. Though this liniment had such wonderful power, it would produce no effect when applied over a part which was not diseased—so that in any case, in which the seat of the disease was not obvious, instead of going through with a strict and long investigation after the vulgar way of regular doctors, St. John Long only had to apply his liniment here and there, till he found that the disease was extracted. One would hardly suppose that such nonsense could be believed in any civilized community; but the theory of this painter, who had thrown aside his brush and dubbed himself doctor, ridiculous as it was, found such favor with the public, that the prominent journals came out with weighty articles againstit. Reasoning was not only in vain, but worse than in vain. The wonder grew—it was not put down. Quackery never yet waskilled—it alwaysdies a natural death, and so did the quackery of St. John Long. After running the gauntlet amidst the heavy blows of wise and powerful enemies, and coming forth unharmed at every heat, it at length laid itself down, and died the most quiet death imaginable. It fell asleep; and this is the end of all quackery.

Who has not heard of Perkins’ Tractors? The inventor, Doctor Elisha Perkins, was born in the town where the author resides. He was the son of a physician, who was for forty years in extensive practice, and was himself, for some time a respectable physician in the town of Plainfield in this State. He was undoubtedly an honest man. He duped others, it is true, but he duped himself, too. He was a deluded enthusiast, and died a victim to his enthusiasm only three years after he published to the world his grand ‘discovery.’ He had conceived the idea that a free use of salt as an antiseptic would cure the yellow fever. He therefore went to New York in the year 1799, when this disease was raging, and, full of confidence in his mode of practice, offered his services most generously to the poor as well as the rich. At the end of four weeks he himself caught the fever, and being exhausted by his labors he survived but four days after his attack.

The promulgation of Dr. Perkins’ ‘discovery,’ which occurred in 1796, was preceded, it is said, by a long series of experiments, which were suggested by the supposition, that metallic substances might remove disease by some electrical or galvanic power. The Tractors, which were the final result of these experiments, are two pieces of metal about three inches long, blunt at one end, and running to a point at the other. One of them appears to be brass, andthe other steel, but what their real composition is, is not known, as the invention was patented.

The fame of the Tractors spread with unaccountable rapidity, and marvelous cures were everywhere reported. Certificates came in from all quarters, and from all kinds of dignitaries. Not only captains, and colonels, and generals, and ’squires sounded the praises of the Tractors, but clergymen and senators and doctors and professors. And their fame was not confined to this country. Benjamin Douglass Perkins, a son of the inventor, went to London to obtain the patronage of the British public for the Tractors. Great cures were forthwith effected all over the kingdom, of which there were multitudes of certificates from the wise and good, and, what is better, from the titled and wealthy. Similar cures were also reported from other countries in Europe, especially from Denmark.

To prove that imagination had nothing to do with these results, there were related many instances of cure in infants and in horses. It was found by some sage observer that, though horses could be cured by the Tractors, they had no influence at all upon sheep. He supposes that this is owing to the unctuous matter in the wool, and he remarks that “even pomatum, it is well ascertained, prevents the Tractors from relieving pains in that part of the head over which the pomatum is used.” A lame crow, supposed to have the cramp, was operated upon so successfully by the Tractors, that though he had not been able to put his foot to the ground for a week, he walked perfectly well the next morning after the application.[12]

The multitude of cases which were collected from every quarter were occasionally published. I have in my possession a volume of nearly two hundred pages published in London, containing a great number of these cases. The testimony is of the most decisive character. Pain was relieved in a trice by a few strokes of the Tractors; inflammations were drawn out; swellings were dispersed, and, in some cases, with such rapidity that they wereseento lessen during the application; rheumatism, which had baffled the best medical skill was removed; the paralytic was made to walk—such were the reports which were constantly put forth.

The success of the Tractors was attested not only by multitudes of wealthy and titled and learned men, but even by many of the medical profession; and selfish motives were unhesitatingly attributed to all physicians who were unbelievers. A physician, who was of sufficient respectability to be a president of a medical society, said of such unbelievers, that “likeinfidelsto the gospel, they admit of no mysteries, and refuse to believe what they do not readily comprehend.” Dr. Haygarth, an eminent physician of Bath, and some others, drew down a storm of public wrath upon their heads, because they asserted that a pair of wooden Tractors, painted so as to resemble the real metallic ones, had produced in their hands as marked effects as those which were purchased of Mr. Benjamin Douglass Perkins, at five guineas a pair. So strong was the hold which ‘thenew science of Perkinism,’ as it was called, had obtained upon the public favor, that the son of the inventor of the Tractors was spoken of as being most unjustly persecuted by a large proportion of the medical profession; and his name was often associated with those of Galileo and Harvey and Jenner, who, it was said, had suffered like persecution before him, from the stereotyped hatred of everything that is new.

The efficacy of the Tractors was almost universally acknowledged; and the only difficulty seemed to be to account for their operation. Many ingenious electrical and galvanic theories were broached by learned men in England and in other countries. Perkinism, as it was called by acclamation, was hailed as one of the greatest of discoveries, and it was supposed to form a new era in medicine. The Tractors were sold in abundance at five guineas a pair. That the poor might be benefitted equally with the rich, the liberality of the British public was appealed to, and not in vain. A ‘Perkinean Institution’ was formed under the patronage of the first men in the kingdom. Lord Rivers was president, and there is a long list of titled vice presidents.

A pamphlet, giving an account of this institution was published, of which I have a copy. The regulations were evidently based upon the idea that it was to be a permanent establishment. One of them prescribes that a donation of ten guineas constitute a governor forlife. As many ladies were very enthusiastic patrons of the Tractors, as they are now of infinitesimal globules, one of the regulations was, that “ladies have liberty to vote by proxy, given to any governor of the institution, or by letter to the chairman.”

In this account it is stated that the published cases of cures by the Tractors up to March, 1802, amounted to aboutfive thousand. “Supposing,” the author goes on to say, “that not more that one cure in three hundred, which the Tractors have performed has been published, and the proportion is probably much greater, it will be seen that the number, to March, 1802, will have exceeded one million five hundred thousand. It is believed that no medical remedy ever yet discovered has been supported by so many well-authenticated and important cures, performed in so short a time.”

And now, I ask, where is the Perkinean Institution, with its troop of governors for life, and where is the Perkinean practice, with its list of five thousand published cures? The institution expired while the governors for life were almost to a man in the land of the living; and in less than ten years after the summing up of the five thousand cures, Perkinism was only thought of as a thing that was past, and the far-famed Tractors were almost forgotten.

And what became of Benjamin Douglass Perkins, who suffered for the cause of science and humanity such persecution as Galileo and Harvey and Jenner suffered before him? He returned to his native land with ten thousand pounds of John Bull’s money, as a reward of his patient endurance of persecution, and his active benevolence!

I might extend this notice of names which have been famous in the history of quackery, but it is not necessary. Those which I have noticed will answer as illustrations of the mode in which medical delusions obtain their hold upon the public mind, and of the facility with which each in its turn is supplanted by some other. The essential materials of quackery, as I remarked in the Preface, have been the same in all ages; and its history would be only a description of the endless forms into which these materials have been moulded. Great as is the variety in the series ofphantasmagoria with which quackery has excited the wonder of the world, they have all been produced upon the same canvas, and by the same old magic lantern.

And busy and multiform as quackery has been, and lofty as have been its claims, I know not that it has ever made asingle discovery in medicine. It may possibly havestumbledupon some discovery, but I am not aware that it has done even this. On the other hand, all the discoveries which have been made in the medical art, so far as I know, have been the results of a truly scientific observation, and fairly belong to that ‘regular’ profession, which so many consider as being opposed to everything which is new.

FOOTNOTES:[7]The following anecdote of an ignoramus, who set himself up as a doctor, furnishes a good illustration of this erroneous mode of reasoning. His first case was that of a butcher, who recovered. As he gave his patient beefsteak and wine quite liberally, he referred the cure to these articles, and put down in his note-book—beefsteak and wine will cure abutcher. His next case was that of a tailor, which, under the same treatment, resulted unsuccessfully. He, therefore, added to the above note—but will kill atailor.You laugh at the use which this man made of the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ mode of reasoning; but, after all, his inference is no farther from the truth than many of the inferences of wise dabblers in physic, promulgated in the newspapers, or even of learned doctors, gravely recorded in the annals of medicine. The only real difference is, that among the many preceding circumstances, to which results might be attributed, he chose one, and they chose some other, a little more plausible, perhaps, than his, but no nearer the truth.[8]The whole course of the medical profession, in regard to discoveries in medicine, has been open and generous, and not secret and mercenary. Dr. Stevens, in his eloquent address before the New York State Medical Society, thus speaks on this point: “Was the introduction of inoculation for the small-pox a speculation? Was the discovery of the preventive power of vaccination, (the labor of close, unremitting, and careful research during a period of several years,)—was that made or conducted with a view to personal emolument? As a matter of course, Dr. Jenner, as soon as he had completed his discovery, published it—made it free to all mankind. When quinine was first discovered, the mode of preparing it was immediately made known. Recently, when some feeble attempts were made to obtain a patent for the use of ether, and to conceal the process of etherization, the indignation of the profession was aroused from one end of our country to the other. The money changers were driven from the temple of humanity.”[9]For example, the famousBalm of Gilead, which, in its time, was said to cure all manner of disease, is nothing but brandy spiced with cardamoms and other like seeds, and made a little more stimulating with Spanish flies. The use of this medicine, therefore, was really only one of the modes of dram drinking.Louis XV. purchased, for a considerable sum, of Madame Nouffleur, a nostrum for the cure of tape-worm. The medicine proved to be the powder of the male fern, which was used for the same complaint by Galen in the second century, but which, in spite of the recommendations of this illustrious physician, and the princely reward paid to Madame Nouffleur for her discovery of it—in, shall I say, some musty book—it has somehow lost its reputation.Examples of the same kind might be given almost indefinitely.[10]A few facts will show the present enormous growth of this interest. Ten years ago, the revenue of the English government, from the sale of patent medicines, was only a little short of fifty thousand pounds sterling. The cost of advertising quack medicines in the United States, was estimated at that time at 200,000 dollars. But it is vastly more now. Dr. Stevens, in his recent address states, that the advertising outlay of some of the most notorious patent medicine proprietors, is reckoned by its fifty and hundred thousand dollars per annum. Quack advertisements occupy a large space in our newspapers. In the twenty columns of a country political paper published tri-weekly, I once counted eleven filled with such advertisements, while only nine were devoted to other advertisements, news, miscellaneous matters, editorials, &c.[11]After he left his professional chair, he wandered about the country, generally intoxicated, seldom changing his clothes, or even going to bed. And though like other quacks who have succeeded him, he boasted that he had discovered apanacea, which would cure all disease at once, and even prolong life almost indefinitely, this prince of empirics died after a few hours’ illness, in the forty-eighth year of his age, at Salzburg in Bavaria, with a bottle of his panacea in his pocket.[12]At one time live toads were a popular remedy for hemorrhage, tied behind the ears, or under the arm pits, or to the soles of the feet. It was supposed by some that the effect was altogether mental. But, as in the case of the Tractors, it was contended that this could not be so, because the same effect was produced upon animals. Michael Mercatus asserts that “if you hang the toad round a cock’s neck for a day or so, you may then cut off his head, andthe neck will not bleed a single drop.” One cannot help being reminded by this of the experiments with theBrocchieri watera year or two since upon animals, which, though reported as perfectly successful, have not saved this remedy from going to the tomb of the Capulets, to which all its predecessors have gone before it.

[7]The following anecdote of an ignoramus, who set himself up as a doctor, furnishes a good illustration of this erroneous mode of reasoning. His first case was that of a butcher, who recovered. As he gave his patient beefsteak and wine quite liberally, he referred the cure to these articles, and put down in his note-book—beefsteak and wine will cure abutcher. His next case was that of a tailor, which, under the same treatment, resulted unsuccessfully. He, therefore, added to the above note—but will kill atailor.You laugh at the use which this man made of the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ mode of reasoning; but, after all, his inference is no farther from the truth than many of the inferences of wise dabblers in physic, promulgated in the newspapers, or even of learned doctors, gravely recorded in the annals of medicine. The only real difference is, that among the many preceding circumstances, to which results might be attributed, he chose one, and they chose some other, a little more plausible, perhaps, than his, but no nearer the truth.

You laugh at the use which this man made of the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ mode of reasoning; but, after all, his inference is no farther from the truth than many of the inferences of wise dabblers in physic, promulgated in the newspapers, or even of learned doctors, gravely recorded in the annals of medicine. The only real difference is, that among the many preceding circumstances, to which results might be attributed, he chose one, and they chose some other, a little more plausible, perhaps, than his, but no nearer the truth.

[8]The whole course of the medical profession, in regard to discoveries in medicine, has been open and generous, and not secret and mercenary. Dr. Stevens, in his eloquent address before the New York State Medical Society, thus speaks on this point: “Was the introduction of inoculation for the small-pox a speculation? Was the discovery of the preventive power of vaccination, (the labor of close, unremitting, and careful research during a period of several years,)—was that made or conducted with a view to personal emolument? As a matter of course, Dr. Jenner, as soon as he had completed his discovery, published it—made it free to all mankind. When quinine was first discovered, the mode of preparing it was immediately made known. Recently, when some feeble attempts were made to obtain a patent for the use of ether, and to conceal the process of etherization, the indignation of the profession was aroused from one end of our country to the other. The money changers were driven from the temple of humanity.”

[9]For example, the famousBalm of Gilead, which, in its time, was said to cure all manner of disease, is nothing but brandy spiced with cardamoms and other like seeds, and made a little more stimulating with Spanish flies. The use of this medicine, therefore, was really only one of the modes of dram drinking.Louis XV. purchased, for a considerable sum, of Madame Nouffleur, a nostrum for the cure of tape-worm. The medicine proved to be the powder of the male fern, which was used for the same complaint by Galen in the second century, but which, in spite of the recommendations of this illustrious physician, and the princely reward paid to Madame Nouffleur for her discovery of it—in, shall I say, some musty book—it has somehow lost its reputation.Examples of the same kind might be given almost indefinitely.

Louis XV. purchased, for a considerable sum, of Madame Nouffleur, a nostrum for the cure of tape-worm. The medicine proved to be the powder of the male fern, which was used for the same complaint by Galen in the second century, but which, in spite of the recommendations of this illustrious physician, and the princely reward paid to Madame Nouffleur for her discovery of it—in, shall I say, some musty book—it has somehow lost its reputation.

Examples of the same kind might be given almost indefinitely.

[10]A few facts will show the present enormous growth of this interest. Ten years ago, the revenue of the English government, from the sale of patent medicines, was only a little short of fifty thousand pounds sterling. The cost of advertising quack medicines in the United States, was estimated at that time at 200,000 dollars. But it is vastly more now. Dr. Stevens, in his recent address states, that the advertising outlay of some of the most notorious patent medicine proprietors, is reckoned by its fifty and hundred thousand dollars per annum. Quack advertisements occupy a large space in our newspapers. In the twenty columns of a country political paper published tri-weekly, I once counted eleven filled with such advertisements, while only nine were devoted to other advertisements, news, miscellaneous matters, editorials, &c.

[11]After he left his professional chair, he wandered about the country, generally intoxicated, seldom changing his clothes, or even going to bed. And though like other quacks who have succeeded him, he boasted that he had discovered apanacea, which would cure all disease at once, and even prolong life almost indefinitely, this prince of empirics died after a few hours’ illness, in the forty-eighth year of his age, at Salzburg in Bavaria, with a bottle of his panacea in his pocket.

[12]At one time live toads were a popular remedy for hemorrhage, tied behind the ears, or under the arm pits, or to the soles of the feet. It was supposed by some that the effect was altogether mental. But, as in the case of the Tractors, it was contended that this could not be so, because the same effect was produced upon animals. Michael Mercatus asserts that “if you hang the toad round a cock’s neck for a day or so, you may then cut off his head, andthe neck will not bleed a single drop.” One cannot help being reminded by this of the experiments with theBrocchieri watera year or two since upon animals, which, though reported as perfectly successful, have not saved this remedy from going to the tomb of the Capulets, to which all its predecessors have gone before it.

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